Protesters Outside ‘Julius Caesar’ in Central Park, and Laughs Inside

Pauline Pujol arrived early to the production of “Julius Caesar” in Central Park on Saturday, but she was not there to see the play.

Holding a sign that read “Far Left Hates América!,” Ms. Pujol, along with a few others, was there to protest the production itself — a production that styles the title character as a Trump-like figure.

“People like me, I don’t even know if they’d let me in,” Ms. Pujol said outside the Delacorte Theater, the home of Shakespeare in the Park. “I am not far right. No one here is far right. We’re only accused of being far right because we love America.”

Just the night before, two people rushed the Delacorte stage during the scene when the Caesar-Trump character is stabbed to death. “Stop the normalization of political violence against the right,” one of them shouted. Security at the theater had been increased for the Saturday night performance, an official said.

“This is the wrong time to put a mask on Julius Caesar and pretend he’s Trump,” said Ms. Pujol, a lifelong New Yorker who lives in Woodside, Queens. “This isn’t the time.”

Mary Andrews, 59, of Manhattan, who was hoping for a standby ticket — standby lines were closed because of high demand — was wondering where the backlash had been when another American production of “Julius Caesar,” in 2012 in Minneapolis, depicted Caesar as President Barack Obama.

“I tried to be as polite as I could be without too much snark,” she said of her interaction with the protesters. “But I don’t think I succeeded in that.”

“Julius Caesar resembled Barack Obama that time,” she said of the previous production. “They have a right to protest, but why weren’t they upset about the black man being killed on stage? Why wasn’t that problematic for them?”

Jim MacDonald said he had been protesting since Friday night. He held a sign that read “Boo the Cast” and “Shut It Down.”

“Everybody knows deep down that this is a play that celebrates the assassination of Donald Trump,” Mr. MacDonald said.

One of the protesters on Friday night, Laura Loomer, 24, was arrested. The New York Police Department said she had been charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct and was released.

“I believe that Laura Loomer last night is the most heroic woman of the year,” Mr. MacDonald said. “She shut the play down and didn’t know what would happen to her.”

Petra Kelly-Voicu, 21, and Karolina Wnorowska, 22, both of Queens, said that they had arrived at 3 a.m. Saturday with sleeping bags just to secure a spot in the audience. “We slept here,” Ms. Kelly-Voicu, 21, said with a laugh.

“We wanted to see the play anyway but were putting it off, but then the controversy made me more interested,” said Ms. Wnorowska.

“I don’t know how we can support someone like that,” Ms. Wnorowska said of Mr. Trump. “There’s a lot of overreaction from conservatives.”

Inside the theater, the production began shortly before 8:15. Just minutes later, three theater staff members rushed toward the stage to inspect an audience member, then left.

Otherwise, the show took a self-aware bent and was filled with often-lighthearted political jokes. “Who is it in the press that calls on me?” Julius Caesar cried out to great laughs. And the audience booed when a character who represented an adviser was introduced. At one point, actors came out with protest signs and exclaimed, “Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!”

More laughter swelled when Caesar appeared sitting in a footed tub, smoking a cigar and typing on his phone, and again when the character playing his wife stepped into the tub, seducing him with a Russian accent.

Before the production, a more reflective tone had been sought. Audience members were invited onto the stage to add a message to a poster reading “I mourn for” and “I hope for.”

People added words like, I mourn for: “innocents lost,” “Manchester,” “Brett” and “Apathy, Enemy of Democracy”; and I hope for: “Paris accord,” “a better life for my sister” and “unconditional love, including self-love.”

Correction:June 18, 2017

An earlier version of this article misstated the reason that lines for standby tickets for “Julius Caesar” were closed on Saturday. The standby lines were closed because of high demand for tickets, not because of the disruption at the performance on Friday.

A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Protest Outside ‘Julius Caesar’ in Central Park; Inside, Sly References to Controversy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe